Thread: Honing Question

Hello all. First timer here. I just purchased my first set ("shave ready" Dovo 6//8 half hollow). I haven't even gotten it yet. I just had some questions about honing and touching up brand new blades.

Will I need to hone a "shave ready" Dovo at all? I have been reading about honing blades and after so many shaves, they need to be touched up. Should I go ahead and buy a sharpening tool for this? If so, what sharpening tool should I go with? How will I know when it needs to be "touched up"? I only shave about 2-3 times a week. I have seen many people say they have a few blades in rotation. Will I be OK having one blade for a while?

Thanks for all of your help and advice. I am just getting into this and I want to make sure I am prepared and can enjoy the experience as much as I hope. I am sure these answers are already on here somewhere so please bear with me if I am asking common questions.

Well if you bought the razor from straight razor designs (Lynn) it will be ready to shave but if you didnt it may need to be honed. Im new to straights myself and I got my dovo from Lynn and it was ready to go. I have the shapton hones 1k 6k 16k and find they work very well.

I bought it from Vintage Blades LLC. How long have you been shaving with straights? Have you had to hone your blades?

I have been shaving with straight since march I honed a couple of straights that I picked up from different places that where not shave ready. The 2 straights I got from Lynn didnt need honing. I dont know if they come shave ready from vintage blades or not a lot of them say shave ready but they really are not if you read ads from dovo they say shave ready from the factory but they really are not

VintageBladesllc used to offer honing when you purchase a blade, Did you opt for that?. if not, then, No, the blade is probably not shave ready. I would have a professional hone it for you. Ask Vintage, or check our classifieds.
Get yourself an old, used, cheap blade to practice honing on if you want to learn. It does take some skill to hone razors, You can't just pick up a sharpening stone, and knock it out.

It looks like Lynn hones the razors for them too. So if it was marked as ***Shave Ready*** on their sight it should be ready to use right out of the box.

From the website:
"Our Vintage Straight Razors are intended to be used as a shaving instrument rather than as a collector item. As a result, they are typically offered professionally honed and completely “shave ready”. Many of our Vintage Straight Razors are also carefully cleaned and polished by a trained restoration professional. Please check each item description for complete details."

"Vintage Blades is pleased to provide you with a straight razor honing service for all the razors in your shaving rotation, whether you bought them here or not. As with all the new professionally honed straight razors that we sell, this service is provided by Lynn Abrams, one of most renowned “Honemeisters” in the world. Lynn has experience honing every type of quality razor made today as well as all vintage razors. This is not a grinding service. Each razor is hand honed by Lynn on the best stones available.

The fee for the standard sharpening service is $20.00 per razor plus return shipping. Lynn also offers an razor examination service for $1.99 plus return shipping if you feel your razors will need more than the standard service. Your return shipping in the US will cost $5.45 for USPS Priority Mail with delivery confirmation. No other shipping options are available.

All payments should be made directly to Lynn through PayPal. You may log onto PayPal at www.paypal.com. Lynn's PayPal ID is [email protected]."

After I saw the reply about Vintage Blades being "shave ready" I called and confirmed that they do come shave ready. Thank you for all of your help.